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APPLICATION OF DIGITAL MEDIA AS A MARKETING TOOL AMONGST NEPALESE START UPS

Case Company: Kritya Hub

Thesis

CENTRIA UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES International Business

April 2021

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ABSTRACT

Centria University of Applied Sciences

Date April 2021

Uddhav Dhakal &

Hasan Mainali Degree programme: Bachelor of Business Administration, International Business Name of the thesis

APPLICATION OF DIGITAL MEDIA AS A MARKETING TOOL AMONGST NEPALESE START UPS

Centria supervisor Katja Viiliäinen-Tyni

Pages 56 + 5 Instructor representing commissioning institute or company

Niresh Lamsal

This thesis aimed to identify the importance and key impacts of digital marketing in Nepalese startups. The changing business environment and digital innovations have changed the way of doing business and resulted in the emergence of digital marketing around the globe. The main subject of this thesis is digital marketing in the start-up businesses of Nepal, how is it being applied and how

effective it is.

More specifically, we will explore why digital marketing has been so vital for businesses in Nepal and how they have capitalized on all that digital marketing has to offer. The study also aims to understand the adaptation of digital marketing, its current limitations, and prospects in the Nepalese market.

To achieve the objective of the thesis, an in-depth conversation was made with a startup working on the digital marketing domain and its clients to gain knowledge about the current market scenario. The thesis research was conducted in a quantitative method; besides, data were collected through an online questionnaire survey.

The findings confirmed that the future of marketing is in digital media because consumers are spending increasing amounts of time online. The thesis was concluded with suggestions on how businesses in Nepal can further incorporate digital marketing strategies for business growth.

Keywords

Challenges, digital marketing, effectiveness, email marketing, future opportunities, impact, importance, lead, search engine optimization, start-ups, social media

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CONCEPT DEFINITIONS

CPC: Click per Cost

CTR: Click-through Rate IP: Internet Protocol PPC: Pay per Click PR: Public Relations

SEM: Search Engine Marketing SEO: Search Engine Optimization SERP: Search Engine Result Pages SMM: Social Media Management SP: Sales Promotion

TA: Target audience

UGC: User Generated Content VM: Viral Marketing

WOM: Word of Mouth

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ABSTRACT

CONCEPT DEFINITIONS CONTENTS

1INTRODUCTION... 1

1.1Background ... 1

1.2Significance ... 2

1.3The case company ... 2

1.4Thesis objectives ... 2

1.5Limitations of the project ... 3

2 STARTUP ECO-SYSTEM IN NEPAL: CURRENT SCENARIO ... 4

MARKETING IN NEPAL: TRADITIONAL VS DIGITAL... 6

3.1 Introduction to marketing ... 6

Traditional marketing ... 7

3.2 Digital marketing ... 8

3.2.1 Digital marketing phases ... 9

3.2.2 Benefits of digital marketing ... 10

DIGITAL MARKETING IN NEPAL ... 12

4.1 Digital marketing in general ... 12

4.2 Components of digital marketing in Nepal ... 14

4.2.1 Social media ... 14

4.2.1 Google ads ... 15

4.2.2 Search engine optimization ... 15

4.2.4 Website ... 17

4.2.5 Blog ... 17

5 DIGITAL MARKETING APPLICATION IN NEPALESE STARTUP ... 18

5.1 Planning and implication ... 19

5.1.1 Situation analysis ... 20

5.1.2 Objectives ... 21

5.1.3 Strategy ... 22

5.1.4 Tactics ... 22

5.1.5 Action ... 22

5.1.6 Control ... 23

6 EMPIRICAL STUDY AND RESEARCH ... 24

6.1 Methodology ... 24

6.2 Research questions ... 25

6.3 Interview ... 25

6.4 Conducting the interview ... 26

6.5 Interview transcription ... 26

6.6 Thematic analysis ... 26

7 DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS ... 27

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8 DIGITAL MARKETING APPLICATION AT THE CASE COMPANY ... 40

8.1 Interview background and general information about the participants ... 40

8.2 Current application of digital marketing tools at the case company ... 41

8.2.1 Facebook ... 42

8.2.2 Instagram ... 43

8.2.3 LinkedIn ... 44

8.2.4 Twitter ... 45

8.2.5 Website ... 46

8.2.6 YouTube ... 47

8.3 SOSTAC model ... 48

8.3.1 Situation analysis ... 48

TABLE 3: SWOT Analysis ... 50

8.3.2 Objective ... 51

8.3.3 Strategy ... 51

8.3.4 Tactics ... 52

8.3.5 Action ... 52

8.3.6 Control ... 53

8.4 Recommendations for better digital media marketing ... 53

8.5 Digital media plan for kritya hub pvt. ltd. ... 54

9 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION ... 55

LIST OF FIGURES: FIGURE 1: Push and Pull Marketing Strategy... 7

FIGURE 2: Digital Marketing Phases... 10

FIGURE 3: Social media platform share in Nepal………....……….……… 15

FIGURE 4: Relationship between digital media, start-ups, and marketing... 19

FIGURE 5: SOSTAC marketing planning framework applied to digital marketing... 20

FIGURE 6. Summary of the Control Process for E-Marketing Planning... 23

FIGURE 7: Participants Gender...27

FIGURE 8: Participants Position on their respective organization...28

FIGURE 9: Familiarity with the concept of digital marketing... 28

FIGURE 10: Different components for Digital marketing... 29

FIGURE 11: Effective source of marketing for startups... 30

FIGURE 12: Digital marketing strategy at the present... 31

FIGURE 13: Duration of using digital marketing in business... 31

FIGURE 14: Frequency of updates in online platforms...32

FIGURE 15: Common methods used by customers to contact the business... 33

FIGURE 16: Applicability of digital marketing to reach targeted audiences... 33

FIGURE 17: Reasons to use digital media for marketing... 34

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FIGURE 18: Effectiveness of digital marketing tools... 35

FIGURE 19: Digital marketing expenditure of total budget... 36

FIGURE 20: Change in digital marketing expenditure in future ... 37

FIGURE 21: Priorities of digital media activities ... 37

FIGURE 22: Digital marketing method ratings ...38

LIST OF PICTURES: PICTURE 1: An example of Search Engine Optimization ... 16

PICTURE 2: Facebook homepage of the case company... 42

PICTURE 3: LinkedIn homepage of the case company... 45

PICTURE 4: Twitter homepage of the case company... 46

PICTURE 5: Homepage of case company’s website ... 47

PICTURE 6: YouTube homepage of the case company... 48

LIST OF TABLES: TABLE 1: Digital Around the World in 2020………..……. 13

TABLE 2: List of interview participants……….…..…. 41

TABLE 3: SWOT Analysis ……….……..… 49

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1 INTRODUCTION

Digital Marketing is an online form of marketing where brands and businesses connect with potential clients and customers using any form of digital communication over the internet. This includes social media, emailing, and web-based advertising. In Nepal, the digital marketing field is growing and advertisements and brand promotions are moving to digital platforms more and more from the traditional physical advertisement due to the convenience and the reach of digital marketing.

1.1 Background

The idea for this thesis came after our recent visit to Nepal and our conversation with Mr. Niresh Lamsal, co-founder and director of digital media Kritya Hub about the adaptation of digital media marketing within his startup and amongst their existing clients to raise brand awareness, increase sale and grow their business in the Nepalese business environment.

Digital media plays an important role in marketing and creating customer relationships. With the limited barrier to entry, startups around the globe are beginning to adapt digital media as a major tool of marketing.

Digital marketing is the whole process of pulling your customers towards your product/services using digital technologies on the internet or any digital medium. With the increase in the number of people that incorporate the digital world as an inevitable part of their real-life, digital marketing has been growing exponentially on its own.

In recent years, digital marketing has become a significant aspect of marketing strategies for startups around the globe, and Nepal is no exception. Digital marketing is most probably the most popular buzzword among businesses that are looking to expand the reach of their products and services beyond the limitation of traditional marketing methods.

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1.2 Significance

The objective of this research is to examine and evaluate the influence and effectiveness of using digital media strategies that aid startups in building brand awareness, selling their services to grow their business with reference to the case company ultimately.

Startups are significant to the Nepalese economy, and it is crucial to understand how startups are taking advantage of marketing techniques and best practices of digital media to help promote a business to consumer relationships. Social media provides startups the opportunity to engage and interact with consumers to create long-term relationships, which helps the business grow. Startups should embrace such opportunities since they often face resource constraints in terms of time and money. The results gained from this study provide an initial understanding of how a startup business uses digital media to engage customers and build long-term relationships, which help the business grow.

1.3 The case company

Kritya Hub is a business consulting and advertising agency based in Kathmandu, Nepal. It provides digital media marketing, strategic brand ideas, integrated communications, TVC, print media, event management, and business research services to clients.

The history of Kritya Hub can be traced back to 2017 when three friends Niresh Lamsal, Janak Singh Dhami, and Manoj Panjiyar came up with an idea to establish a company that will provide 360⁰ business and marketing solution to businesses in Nepal. Previously, there were very few advertising and business consulting agencies that provided both traditional and digital marketing solutions to clients. Hence, Kritya Hub was started with a mission to provide innovative and effective value-based integrated marketing solutions to our clients, which will help grow their business.

1.4 Thesis objectives

The thesis is conducted to address the following concern: “How effectively startups in Nepal have been applying digital marketing in their business operations on today’s market?”. The objective of the thesis is first to find what are the most used channels of digital marketing amongst startups in Nepal. Secondly,

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the objective is to understand how the case company Kritya Hub uses digital marketing channels to reach a maximum number of potential clients in Nepal.

In this thesis, the author Hasan Mainali researched the adaptation and effectiveness of digital marketing tools among Nepalese startups. Whereas the author Uddhav Dhakal researched the adaptation of digital marketing tools focused on the case company.

1.5 Limitations of the project

The purpose of this thesis is to gain complete knowledge regarding the current status, effectiveness, and prospects of digital marketing in Nepal. From the very beginning, efforts were made to make the study fact-based; however, some problems appeared in the way of conducting the study.

Since the study is conducted by undergraduate students with basic theoretical knowledge and insufficient experience in the area of digital marketing, there are many limitations concerning the study that is carried out. The study considers some limitations.

A lack of proper data and information to complete the project is a major limiting factor. Then, there is the matter of startups being unwilling to share the data and insights they have on digital marketing campaigns. Even when these conditions are met, usually the participants of the study are found to be hesitant to fill in the questionnaire. There is also a lack in the accuracy of data about a number of social media users and startups that are operating in the same domain to measure the effectiveness of digital marketing strategies.

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2 STARTUP ECO-SYSTEM IN NEPAL: CURRENT SCENARIO

A 'start-up' has not been clearly defined, as the academics have different explanations of the concept (Mazzarol & Volery, 2015). According to Investopedia (2020), a startup refers to a company in the first stage of its operations. Startups are founded by one or more entrepreneurs who want to develop a product or service for which they believe there is a demand. These companies generally start with high costs and limited revenue, which is why they look for capital from a variety of sources such as venture capitalists.

Startups are becoming increasingly important in today's economy: fast responsiveness, growth-oriented strategy, and high flexibility help these companies overcome financial crises better than bigger firms with slower response times (Romanelli, 1989; Marques & Ferreira, 2009).

As the prolonged political instability in the country begun to clear, the word ‘entrepreneurship’ has become a catchphrase over the last couple of years in Nepal. Many young people today are finding themselves in a position where they can enter into the world of business. Fascinated by the growth of some of the world’s most influential companies like Google, Facebook, Airbnb, and Uber. Nepalese youth have become attracted towards realizing their idea of bringing products and services that are innovative and disruptive (Sharma, 2017).

A startup may be a small business or any other organization that is supposed to develop an economic model. Many startups use e-commerce, the internet, telecommunications, or say robotics as a niche.

These startups work hard in research for design and implementing the latest innovation, the out-of-the- box process of development, target market, and audiences. The exact definition of the startup is widely discussed. In short, we can say that “any company that is technologically driven and has high growth potential”. Here growth potential is termed as growth in the staff, revenue, market, and all other related aspects. (Proshore, 2020)

The last decade has played a vital role in the development of technology in Nepal. With the growing technology, the number of startups in Nepal has increased during the last decade. According to Startups Nepal, there are currently more than 300 startups in Nepal. Startups are working on different domains like recycling, online food delivery, ride-sharing, and fintech which shows that there are lots of opportunities once you identify the problem. (Proshore, 2020).

Though the number of startup ventures seems to be growing dramatically, the official data of startups in Nepal is not available. It is also believed that 90 percent of startups fail in Nepal and the success rate is

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somewhere between 5-10 percent at present. The reasons behind the failures are understood to be: lack of knowledge on associated risks, market research, lack of financial assistance, and inability to adapt to the changing business environment (Sharma, 2017).

A startup can also fail when there is only one individual as the company’s founder with expertise in a particular sector. For example, if the founder is an engineer, then there is a very minimal chance for the company to grow. It is because he/she might not have proper business ideas. On the other hand, the startup is also likely to fail if innovative engineering minds are absent in the company (Neupane, 2019).

Startups in Nepal are currently facing the challenges of lack of proper mentorship, proper working culture, and awareness, inadequate IT infrastructure, lack of flexibility in startup funding, and migration of young talent outside the country. Despite the challenges, here are a lot of opportunities if you have a clear idea of your product (mostly digital products in the context of Nepal). To know your potential market, you should first know your product, you should identify the correct target audience, a clear business model, and mostly the correct technology to solve the problem (Proshore, 2020).

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MARKETING IN NEPAL: TRADITIONAL VS DIGITAL

Traditional marketing is a physical means of advertisement that consist of anything from physical pamphlets and hoarding board advertisements to TV broadcast and word of mouth promotion. It is a prevalent source of marketing and has been in use in one form or another since ancient times. Digital marketing on the other hand includes all marketing efforts that use the internet. Digital marketing channels include social media, email, search engines, and websites.

3.1 Introduction to marketing

Marketing is a crucial activity for the survival and success of a business. Businesses today have more marketing opportunities than ever (Bresciani & Eppler, 2010). The fundamental objective of marketing is to establish and manage customer relationships. According to American Marketing Association,

"Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large."

Every business works to sell its product and services to the public, and marketing is the process by which companies create customer interest in products and services they are offering. It is an integrated process through which companies build strong customer relationships and create value for their customers and themselves.

Marketing includes the activities like identification of demand, research, market segmentation, product development, branding, packaging, labeling, the launching of products, pricing strategy, promotion of products and services, sales promotion, personal selling, publicity, public and press relations, distribution of products and services, market feedback and many other activities.

In 2012, Dr. Philip Kotler defined marketing as "the science and art of exploring, creating, and delivering value to satisfy the needs of a target market at a profit. Marketing identifies unfulfilled needs and desires.

It defines, measures and quantifies the size of the identified market and the profit potential" (Kotler, 2012). Marketing enables businesses to find out what the customer needs and it also helps to decide on a product to make, which will deliver both value and satisfaction to the market.

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Marketing strategies can be divided into Push and Pull marketing, as seen in figure 1 below, where the fundamental difference lies in how the consumer is approached by business as shown in the figure below.

Simply put, a ‘push’ marketing strategy seeks to build awareness of your brand whilst also taking products and services directly to customers whereas a ‘pull’ marketing strategy relies heavily on the existence of customers who will actively seek out your products or services as they’re already familiar with the brand (Inman, 2019).

FIGURE 1: Push and Pull Marketing Strategy (Adapted from Marketing Strom and drawn by authors) Likewise, startups in Nepal are following both push and pull marketing strategies which are very effective in their respective ways. For example, radio and television advertisements, exhibitions and fairs, print and display advertisements act as push marketing which makes audiences aware of the business and its services. Acts of pull marketing are also followed alongside the help of social media presence, websites, search engine optimization, and word of mouth. All these marketing tools have the qualities to draw potential customers towards companies’ products and services.

Traditional marketing

Nepal, being an agriculture-based underdeveloped country for a very long period of marketing and advertising practices came late to the nation. With the increasing exposure to the western world and growth in the business sector, Nepal had the first printed form of an advertisement in the year 1919 B.S.

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on the cover page of the book Mokshashidhhi. The first commercial advertisement came into practice in the year 1984 B.S. in Nepal, which was published by Gorkhapatra; a weekly newspaper started in 1958 B.S. Before that, government notices and announcements appeared as an advertisement on the newspaper. It was during the 1990s and 2000s after the government launched an open market that rapid changes in advertising and marketing business through print media, FM, radio, Television channels, outdoor campaigns, wall posters, and painting in Nepal were observed (Sharma, 2016).

Traditional marketing is a conventional method that helps to reach out to an audience with various offline advertising and promotional methods, which includes: print advertisement, TV broadcast, radio, catalogs, postcards, telemarketing, flyers, billboards, exhibitions, and many more. In Nepal, the print media are still the biggest media sector in generating advertisement revenue, covering up to 47 percent of shares (Acharya, 2014).

While traditional marketing is still effective, for startups with a limited marketing budget, the cost associated with it makes it challenging to implement. Costs for traditional marketing methods like print, TV, and billboards are costly for small startups to afford. However, they do adopt strategies like flyers, catalogs, local radio, and newspapers as a part of their marketing strategy. Another major disadvantage with traditional marketing is that it is very time-consuming as a lot of time is required for planning and execution. Furthermore, it is complicated to get feedback from users in real time; communication with consumers is one way, which means there are no accurate ways to learn about the effectiveness of the marketing strategy executed (Sharma, 2016).

3.2 Digital marketing

Today's marketing environment is characterized by globalization, technological change, and intense competition. We are all in this era when using intent and going online is now a part of everyday life.

Most of the information consumption happens online. For this reason, digital marketing is considered as the new world marketing as it is faster, and businesses can get more data and insights about consumers in real-time. Hence, it is easier to get feedback from the market and adapt accordingly.

Digital marketing offers opportunities for frequent, cost-effective, personalized, and interactive communication between the company and its customers to cultivate customer relationships, which can lead to increased loyalty (Merisavo, 2008). Other scholars have stated that digital marketing is a big part

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of the future, for sure. Still, it's important to remember that it's not the only game in town, i.e., thinking of media in terms of digital and traditional is becoming an increasingly invalid position (Ryan, & Jones, 2009).

Digital marketing is becoming an effective marketing hub for every kind of business in Nepal.

Businesses can quickly reach a large group of audiences through the internet at a much lower cost.

Hence, with the advantages like lower cost of advertisement, instant communication, better consumer insights, and its vast reach, both startups and big companies in Nepal have been trying to maximize the utilization of digital marketing platforms.

According to the Advertising Association of Nepal, the share of digital advertising out of the overall advertising market comprising print, TV, radio, and other media has swelled to 10 percent in 2018 AD from 5 percent two years ago. This ratio is expected to further grow in exponential number as the number of internet users, and smartphone holders are increasing every day. As per the data released by Dataportal, it is estimated that there were 10.21 million internet users in Nepal as of January 2020, an increase of 3.2 percent during the same period last year. Nepal has an internet penetration of 35% as of January 2020.

3.2.1 Digital marketing phases

The digital marketing process for any business includes four phases as every inbound marketing process:

Attract, Engage, Convert, and Delight, as presented in figure 2. (Rhoades, 2017). The digital marketing process starts with the idea of attracting potential customers towards the online presence of the business, which includes a website, e-mail, social media, and creatives used on the existing digital media platforms. The very first step is to raise brand awareness and make our targeted customers familiar with our products and services using the digital platform (Rhoades, 2017).

Once the brand has created awareness, the next step is followed by brand positioning and engaging with the audience. Engagement with the audience is the most crucial step of digital marketing, which is done with structural content planning and digital media campaigning around our product and services (Rhoades, 2017).

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When enough visitors are on the social media and website, now the visitors will turn into leads and leads to conversions. Increasing the conversion rate is fundamental to increase the return on investment and make the most of the digital marketing budget. Once the audience has started to engage/ enquire with the business by filling a sign-up form or just chat with our representative online about the products and services and then submit their details. After the detail has been received, the company can easily communicate with the interested audience and convert them into a real customer (Rhoades, 2017).

The goal of any business is not just to sell only once but to delight the customer so that they will return to them for future purchases as well. Hence, the business needs to have continuous communication and feedback with the customer in the coming days on after-sales services, loyalty programs, discounts on the next purchases (Rhoades, 2017).

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FIGURE 2: Digital Marketing Phases (Adapted from Social Media Today and drawn by authors)

3.2.2 Benefits of digital marketing

Digital marketing has several advantages over traditional marketing, which makes running any business, big or small, simple, cost-effective, and convenient (Sherman, 2019)

ATTRACT

ENGAGE

CONVERT

DELIGHT

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Digital marketing helps businesses to communicate with their customers from the very first stage of the buying process. It creates an instant two-way communication and feedback loop between both the buyer and businesses. It allows businesses to have more control over the medium of advertisement in comparison to traditional means of advertisement. A business doesn't have to rely on multiple vendors to execute its marketing campaigns.

Digital marketing is available all the time. You can execute and perform your marketing campaigns from anywhere and at any time and make the changes instantly. The only thing you need to have is an internet connection. It’s both fast and efficient in building customer relationships. Customers can easily communicate with the business via the instant messaging platform on various social media platforms on which instant action can be taken from the business end to solve the issue. This will help in building a better relationship with existing and potential customers. It allows you to keep an eye on the effectiveness of your marketing efforts and their insights all the time. This means that by the ease of monitoring your insights at any time, you can get to know the customer's interaction with the business in real-time.

Digital marketing can boost sales by delivering a consistent message across several communication tools to create more avenues for customers to become aware, interested, and ultimately purchase the product and services. This saves marketing and advertising cost for the business as it is much cheaper in comparison to the traditional means of advertisement such as televisions, newspapers, and billboards, etc. (Sherman, 2019)

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DIGITAL MARKETING IN NEPAL

Nepal despite being a little late to the digital marketing scenario has made quite a leap in the field in the last decade. From almost a non-existent market to the thriving state it has reached, the availability of the latest technologies and tools to the people has made the transition from an advertisement market based solely on the traditional means of marketing to a more digital-based platform.

4.1 Digital marketing in general

Digital marketing refers to the use of the internet, mobile devices, social media, search engines, and other channels to reach consumers for promoting the product and services of any business. The term digital marketing is comparatively new, yet its impact, advantage, and prospect are tremendous.

Businesses today are looking for a definite way to accommodate digital marketing strategies as a part of their marketing mix. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and others have effectively transformed the attitudes and perceptions of targeted consumers towards the business.

The term Digital Marketing was first used in the 1900s. The concept took off with the boom of the internet and the development of search engine ranking of websites. Companies started to maximize their ranking on Yahoo after it was launched in 1994 (Smyth 2007). After the success of Yahoo, it gave birth to new search engines and social media platforms to the public. New platforms to communicate with the users allowed businesses to get instant feedback from the users to understand their needs better.

According to (Chaffey, 2013) digital marketing is the use of technologies to help marketing activities to improve customer knowledge by matching their needs. Digital marketing in Nepal includes social media marketing, website, and SEO, e-mail marketing, content marketing, and PPC.

The introduction of new technologies and platforms has created new business opportunities for marketers to manage their websites and achieve their business goals (Kiani 1998, 185-194). Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat, along with various messaging platforms and search engines, businesses now have an alternative platform to promote their product or services with the aided insights provided by the platform themselves.

Social media has advanced from merely providing a platform for individuals to stay in touch with their family and friends. It plays a vital role at both individual and organizational levels in modern society.

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With the rapid growth of communication technologies, it has become a central tool in personal lifestyles and organizational activities (Bergstrom & Backman 2013, 9-10). By utilizing social networking services, activities, like making contacts and interacting with others, have become more convenient (Bergstrom & Backman 2013, 19). This allows the business to communicate and understand the insights of their customers, both existing and potential. Businesses are utilizing these insights to reach consumers and provide them the best shopping experience.

Search Engine Optimization is also one of the most crucial instruments of digital marketing from a long- term business perspective. To succeed in SEO, businesses have to create exciting and valuable user content, build up the external and internal links, and optimize the headings of the web pages, and many more. Businesses have realized that the higher visibility on the search engine has a positive impact not only on the brand equity, but also on the revenue from sales (Dou et al., 2010; Skiera, Eckert, & Hinz, 2010, 261-279)

E-mail marketing is one of the preferred methods of contact for businesses looking to cut expenses, connect with buyers, and increase profits with customized content. According to Kotler et al. (2013:

523), e-mail is still an essential and growing marketing tool and continues that e-mail is used in 79 percent of all direct marketing campaigns.

As per the definition of Informa Connect, Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly- defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action. Several marketing strategists emphasize that the creation of superior customer value is a crucial element for ensuring companies' success (Cravens et al. 1997; Higgins 1998; Huber 2001; Porter 1996; Reichheld et al. 2000). There is a general agreement on the fact that content is the foundation of value creation in the digital world.

As shown in Table 1 below, the report of 2020 from ‘We Are Social’ and ‘Hootsuite’ shows that, among the total population of the world 7.75 billion, 59% of people were using the internet which was 4.54 billion. The total number of active social media users was 3.80 billion and similarly 5.19 billion people who were using mobile phones both of which is an increase from the past year. The increasing usages of social media and penetration of the internet have created a huge scope for digital marketing at present.

Businesses have been more aware of digital marketing and started utilizing the benefits of this change.

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TABLE 1: Digital Around the World in 2020 (adapted from We Are Social 2020)

Total Population 7.75 billion

Urbanization 55%

Unique mobile phone users 5.19 billion

Mobile phone penetration 59%

Internet users 4.54 billion

Internet penetration 59%

Active social media users 3.80 billion

4.2 Components of digital marketing in Nepal

Digital marketing is a growing industry in Nepal. Though a little behind in resource utilization, the digital marketing scene does make use of quite a lot of the components that make up the various aspects of digital marketing. From platforms to tools, the Nepalese digital marketers have been utilizing quite a lot of services that make the business go smooth.

4.2.1 Social media

Social media is the term given to the internet or mobile-based channels which allow users to share opinions that encourage them in participation and engagement (SmartInsights, 2020). It has been the most popular buzzword in digital marketing for the last couple of years amongst businesses around the globe. The successful adaptation of social media platforms, mainly Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, has changed the way how businesses build customer relationships and run their business. With an astounding user count of more than 10 million, Facebook is the biggest social media platform for Nepalese business to promote their product and services with a total share of 91.6% followed by Twitter 2. % and Instagram 2.2 % (Niraula, 2020) which is also shown in figure 3.

Nepalese startups have been using social media platforms in two specific ways. The first use is organically building followers/fans by sharing useful content, engagement, giveaways, and contests on their social media. Then there’s the use of paid advertisement where brands buy paid advertisements on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter to advertise their products and services.

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FIGURE 3: Social media platform share in Nepal (Adapted from Digital Gurkha, drawn by authors)

4.2.1 Google ads

Google Ads is an advertising platform from Google, where advertisers bid on specific keywords and pay to display brief advertisements within the Google ad network to web users (Nunan and Knox, 2011, 523- 540). The advertisers can display service offerings, product listings, video content, and generate mobile application installs on the Google Ads platform. Google Ads platform has inbuilt functionality and tools for making the advertisement effective, which includes: Keyword planner, Google Ads Editor, Google Ad Express, remarketing, Smart Shopping, and many more.

Google Ads is a relatively new advertising tool for businesses in Nepal, and only a few of the startups have been able to incorporate Google Ads as part of their marketing tool. However, with a clear strategic approach to digitalization, Google Ads can be a great help for an advertiser to create brand awareness and an upsurge in sales (Khatiwada, 2018).

4.2.2 Search engine optimization

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an organic promotion concept that emphasizes snowballing the number of people visiting by landing them into our website by improving our ranking following the

Social media platfom share in Nepal

Facebook Instagram Twitter LinkedIn Others

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search engine algorithm. SEO also ensures better quality, the quantity of organic traffic. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is defined as “a method that uses search principles for search engines to provide the higher ranking to the more suitable webpage.” (Gupta &Agrawal & Gupta, 2016, 381-390).

SEO helps users to get the right and new information through website URL, keywords, code structure, link and it is very important in all the aspects like management, production, and marketing strategy. It also includes root dictionary, site map, site navigation, usage of social media (Yalcin & Kose, 2010, 487-493). Once you start getting quality traffic, you need more quantity of that traffic to widen the coverage. And at last, the traffic must be organic, the flow of traffic must not be from any Ads or because of paid commission.

PICTURE 1: An example of Search Engine Optimization (Screenshot taken by authors, 2020)

In the process of SEO, there are mainly three parties. One is a website owner; the second one is a searcher, and the third one the search engine itself. When a searcher searches for "the best Nepalese advertising agency," the search engines process through its algorithm and shows the results. To be on the top of the searches, a website should have a high SEO value by the use of internal links, keywords, Meta tags, external links, etc.

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4.2.3 E-mail marketing

In simple words, e-mail marketing is the use of e-mail to promote products and services. It is a handy digital marketing tool that allows a business to send a personalized message to prospects and convert them into the lead and, ultimately, customers. It is a cost-effective and popular communication channel, especially for SME markets because of its low operational cost (Chaffey, 2010).

E-mail marketing allows businesses to communicate with existing customers or prospective clients with a targeted e-mail campaign, which can include information about clients of newly launched products or services, advertisements, building rapport, and regular newsletters to keep our audience updated about the business. E-mail marketing, though it carries huge potential, startups in Nepal are still reluctant to incorporate the tool to market their business (Niki, 2015).

4.2.4 Website

Cambridge Business English Dictionary defines a website as, “a set of pages of information on the internet about a particular subject that has been published by the same person, company, or organization, and often contains pictures, video, and sound.” Any business, be it a small startup or a well-established one, ought to have a website. A website in today's time is a necessity and an expectation of a client.

People wish to know about products and services, blog, portfolios, and contact info. A business website provides advantages: a virtual showcase of your products or services, availability, and an interactive platform to engage with our existing and potential customers. Nowadays, the trend for businesses to have a website is growing as it is now one of the significant sources for communication, promotion, and advertisement with massive coverage in a cost-efficient manner.

4.2.5 Blog

A blog is one of the essential digital marketing tools for businesses that help to share their service, ideas, and expertise with their audience. Blog content plays a crucial role to rank websites higher in Google SERPs, a.k.a. increase your visibility. As a startup, a business relies on blogging to raise awareness, develop, and strengthen relationships with both existing and potential customers (McGeorge, 2016).

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5 DIGITAL MARKETING APPLICATION IN NEPALESE STARTUP

A 'start-up' has not been clearly defined, as the academics have different explanations of the concept (Mazzarol & Volery, 2015). According to Investopedia (2020), a startup refers to a company in the first stage of its operations. Startups are founded by one or more entrepreneurs who want to develop a product or service for which they believe there is a demand.

Digital media is a powerful marketing tool in any startup's multichannel marketing channel, looking to increase their reach and interaction with customers. It helps startups to reduce their overall marketing budget, interact and engage with customers much faster and efficiently.

Startups are becoming increasingly important in today's economy: fast responsiveness, growth-oriented strategy, and high flexibility help these companies overcome financial crises better than bigger firms with slower response times (Romanelli, 1989; Marques & Ferreira, 2009).

A successful startup requires not only a great product but also a strong marketing campaign. A startup's business model must include digital media marketing. The reasoning behind this is that successful startups used to rewrite their business models across various iterations before deciding whether to pivot or stick with their current business model and goals. (Ries, 2011).

For startups who have reduced resources and cannot make risky investments, digital marketing facilitates startups to compete with big multinational companies in a very cost-efficient manner and explore the global marketplace with ease. If used properly, digital marketing can be a huge boon for your start-up and will give you consumer insights to grow and accelerate your business in the long run (Zatakia, 2017).

Digital marketing allows Nepalese startups to tap into the huge target audience. With a small budget, companies can increase visibility and awareness. The Internet rewards creative businesses. If your content is creative, you are awarded by your audience by comments, likes, and most importantly by sharing which has a multiplier effect (Jhunjhunwala, 2017).

The model in figure 4 shows the relationship between digital media, marketing, and start-up.

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FIGURE 4: Relationship between digital media, start-ups, and marketing (Adapted from Sharma V.

and Bharati S.B, 2017).

5.1 Planning and implication

According to Corporate Finance Institute, market planning is the process of organizing and defining the marketing aim of a company and gathering strategies and tactics to achieve them. A solid marketing plan should consist of the company’s value proposition, information regarding its target market or customers, a comparative positioning of its competitors in the market, promotion strategies, distribution channels, and budget allocated for the plan. All relevant teams in the organization should refer to its marketing plan.

A clearly defined plan helps companies not only to stay focused, target the right audience, and align digital marketing activities with their business goals but also allows to avoid risks of missing a substantial market opportunity or even lose market share to competitors (Ryan 2014, 22).

Plans can be short-term (1 year), medium-term (2-3 years), or long-term (3-5 years). Regardless of their span, all can use the SOSTAC planning framework. The abbreviation stands for Situation analysis, Objectives, Strategy, Tactics, Actions, and Control. The SOSTAC ® marketing model, created by PR

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Smith, is a popular and widely used model for marketing and business planning. Whether you’re creating an overall marketing or digital marketing strategy or improving individual channel tactics like SEO or email marketing, this is the tool to use.

FIGURE 5: SOSTAC marketing planning framework applied to digital marketing (Adapted from Chaffey and Smith 2008, drawn by authors)

5.1.1 Situation analysis

Situation analysis answers the question “Where are we now?” which should be analyzed both internally and externally where the analytical areas are, Key performance indicators which are the business success criteria, the SWOT analysis in the context of e-marketing, the PESTEL analysis which is the external uncontrollable factors, Customer profiles, Competitor analysis and the Distributor analysis (Chaffey &

Smith 2013, 540-541).

The situation analysis stage of marketing planning includes a SWOT analysis. The SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool that is used for situational diagnosis. A SWOT Analysis is, therefore, a significant tool for situation analysis that helps the managers to identify organizational and environmental factors.

A SWOT Analysis has two dimensions: Internal and external. The internal dimension includes

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organizational factors, also strengths, and weaknesses, external dimension includes environmental factors, also opportunities, and threats (Gürel 2017, 995). Chaffey and Smith (2013, 541) however, recommend using the SWOT analysis to analyze the current e-marketing situation and call this method the “e-SWOT”.

A PESTEL analysis is an acronym for a tool used to identify the external factors facing an organization.

The abbreviation stands for Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental, and Legal.

Kotler (1998) also argued that the PEST analysis is a strategic tool for understanding the ‘big picture of the environment in which an organization is operating and risks associated with market growth or decline, and as such the position, potential, and direction for an organization. In this thesis, PESTLE analysis is not considered because the study focuses on digital marketing.

5.1.2 Objectives

A company defines specific, measurable objectives which should be achieved with the help of digital marketing during this stage of planning. In essence, this stage answers “Where do we want to be?” and

“what do we want to achieve through online channels?” (Chaffey & Smith 2013, 3.) As the most common goals for companies Chaffey and Smith (2013, 548) point out the following: grow sales, add value, get closer to customers, save costs, and add some value.

There are five broad reasons/objectives of e-marketing. The first one would be to grow the sales through wider distribution, promotion, and sales. Then, there’s the aspect of giving the customers an extra benefit while using the online platform, thus adding value to going digital. This gives the brand a chance to get closer to the customers. Through tracking, creating dialogues through solving queries, and learning about them the brand has an opportunity to build a stronger relationship with the customers.

E-marketing also saves the cost of the production, from cutting the expenses from services, promotions, sales transactions and administration, print and posting, an increase in profit can be made on the transaction. More than that, e-marketing extends the name of the brand online, thus enforcing its value on a new medium (Chaffey & Smith 2008, 43).

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5.1.3 Strategy

Strategy answers the question of how the company can achieve earlier measured objectives. It includes available recourses and it should identify segments of the online market that the company is indented to target with the plan. The marketer should define the segmentation, the target audience, and also the positioning. Further, it is important to define which tools will be used to achieve the goals and how the integration will be done (Smith, 2018)

The company's sequence e-tools are websites, email marketing, and viral marketing. Another very important part of an online strategy is the development of the dynamic dialogue via the integrated database. It includes the question of how the company´s website is processed and made accessible.

Second, the strategy regulates the use of social media which main purpose is listening and engaging customers (Chaffey & Smith 2013, 555).

5.1.4 Tactics

Tactics are the details of the strategy which answer the question of how the company can exactly reach their goal. Tactics are usually short-term and flexible when strategy tends to be more long-term. A company should detail its online marketing tactics because those support the strategy. (Chaffey & Smith 2013, 562). Tactics usually include a detailed marketing mix, including online and offline marketing and communication mixes, like content marketing, content placement, Social Media Marketing, and amplification (Smith, 2018).

5.1.5 Action

The action stage explains who does what and when and focuses on how the company can bring its online plan to life and create actionable measures. In the action stage, the company has to pay attention to good project management 27 skills because each tactic is like a mini-project that requires a series of actions.

(Chaffey & Smith 2013, 564-565). One of the most effective tools for the action plan is the Gantt chart which represents the chain of activities with general timing on when those actions will take place and finish. In brief, this chart places focus on the dimension of time (Brennan 2011, 178).

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5.1.6 Control

The final part is the stage of control that shows how the company is monitoring its performance. It includes the plan of controlling measurements as shown in figure 6 below. Performance is measured with the help of certain metrics. Quite often, key performance indicators should be measured. In the context of digital marketing, they can be sales, online revenue contribution, subscriptions, inquiries, unique visitors (N), repeat visitors (N), the average duration of stay at a website, most popular pages, churn rates, termination rates, source of traffic, awareness levels (Chaffey & Smith 2008, 472).

FIGURE 6. Summary of the Control Process for E-Marketing Planning. Adapted from Chaffey & Smith 2008, 472 and drawn by authors.

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6 EMPIRICAL STUDY AND RESEARCH

This chapter presents the research methodology and method of this thesis is giving an introduction to case study research. The main aim of this chapter is to give the reader an overview of the research methodology and method used to construct this study.

Research is an art of scientific and systematic investigation to get information about a specific topic. It can be considered as an endeavor to find an answer to intellectual and practical problems using the applicable scientific method. Burn (1994, 2) views research as “a systematic investigation to find answers to a problem”.Kerlinger (1986) says that research is a systematic, controlled, empirical and critical investigation of hypothetical propositions, facts, the answer to a question, or the resolution of a problem.

6.1 Methodology

There are two research methods to choose from while conducting a study: qualitative and quantitative research methodology. The selection of the research method is the most concrete part of the research process. Therefore, it is important to understand the main features of various methods to be able to select the most suitable one. (Creswell 2003, 153)

Quantitative research methods include, for example, surveys and questionnaires and focus on numerical data which can be transformed into statistical analysis. Qualitative research methods on the other hand focus on the interpretation of languages, studying the meaning of people’s lives in real-life conditions.

(Morrison; Haley; Sheehan;& Taylor, 2012). Mixed methods research is a combination of qualitative and quantitative data. It provides a more holistic understanding of the research problem. (Creswell 2003, 208-209)

This study is conducted using the quantitative research method. Quantitative research answers the questions of how much, how many, or other types of questions that are measured in numerical values.

This method in its most basic form is several questions asked from a randomly chosen group (Karjalainen 2004).

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6.2 Research questions

The purpose of the research is to understand and explain why using digital marketing is so significant for start-ups and small companies in today's world. More precisely, how the presence on various digital media platforms work together holistically and what the benefits are of each of those for business. It also helps to understand the strategic importance behind digital media marketing for a company in Nepal.

Any business, whether a startup or a large company, would like to use the opportunities provided by digital media platforms to promote themselves. The interview questions were developed based on digital marketing strategies and experiences from existing literature. The topics asked in the interview included:

purpose, strategy, challenges, and results with a focus to offer ideas and viewpoints that are important to understand before adopting digital marketing strategies on business. To accomplish the aim of the thesis under the theoretical framework, the authors have covered the following research areas and scope.

What is the role of social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger) for start-ups and small companies, and how to use them? What is the role of the company's website for start-ups and small companies, and how to use it for business purposes? How does a business benefit from SEO? How do videos, images, and content affect people on digital media platforms? How cost-effective is digital marketing for your business? What do you think will be the digital media environment in the coming days in Nepal?

The authors have prepared a Preliminary Research Questionnaires (Appendix 1) to cover the above areas.

6.3 Interview

During the research, the authors have conducted a preliminary skype interview with the commissioner on March 12, 2020. The first interview took approximately 25 minutes to complete, where the authors discussed the thesis objective and availability of the case company’s team members for a detailed interview in the future. The interview was informal on the occasions, so few additional follow-up questions were raised depending upon the answer received. The authors are in regular communication with the case company regarding the thesis topic.

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6.4 Conducting the interview

The authors have asked to interview team members of the case company to understand in detail how digital media marketing is being implemented in the organization. The participants were contacted via email, requesting their participation and agreement on a time to set up the interview. The participants were to be contacted via google meet conversation, requesting their participation and agreement on a time to set up the interview.

After a brief introduction, the authors will ask the first question and allow the participant to answer accordingly. Once the question is answered, the participant will be asked the next question, and so on.

Upon completion of the interview, the researcher will thank the participant and the interview ends. The interview will be then transcribed. The interview questions are attached in Appendix 1.

6.5 Interview transcription

The authors will transcribe the audio recording manually later. The transcript will be revised to increase the readability of the final transcript. The final transcript will be formatted to correctly identify the text spoken by the researcher versus the text spoken by the participant.

6.6 Thematic analysis

The researcher's strategy for analyzing the transcribed interview is to find out the participant's opinions, knowledge, experience on the research question. The analysis will begin by first reading through the interview transcript and coding to describe the answer provided. The first time a theme will be noted, the author will highlight the phrases in different colors corresponding to different codes. Afterward, a brief description of each theme observed was written. The transcript will be reviewed multiple times to identify to make sure researchers have not missed or misunderstood any answers provided.

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7 DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS

In the following chapter, the results of the collected data are explained in the figures. All the questions of the survey are described and analyzed separately as shown in the figures. Figures which are shown below were created from Microsoft Excel based upon the data from the questionnaire survey.

Question 1: What is your gender?

FIGURE 7: Participants Gender

The very first question asked to the participants was their respective gender. As seen in the above figure 7,we can see that the majority of the participant i.e. 30 out of a total of 37 respondents are male.

Question 2: What is your current position in the company?

Figure 8 below illustrates the current position of respondents. As we can see, the majority of respondents are currently in positions related to marketing and branding. Out of 37 interviewees, it shows 10 respondents were brand managers, 9 were marketing assistants and 8 of them were marketing managers at their respective companies. Meanwhile, 4 of the respondents were held the position of CEO, 5 held the position of sales manager and only one respondent was from another position.

7

30

Participants Gender

Female Male

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FIGURE 8: Participants Position on their respective organization Question 3: How familiar are you with the digital marketing concept?

FIGURE 9: Familiarity with the concept of digital marketing

Figure 9 above demonstrates the familiarity of respondents towards the concept of digital marketing.

According to the response of respondents, 11 respondents completely understand the concept of digital marketing whereas 19 respondents are pretty familiar with the concept. 5 of the total respondents have only heard about digital marketing and only 2 respondents have no understanding of what digital

4

8

9 10

5 1

What is your current position in the company?

CEO Marketing Manager Marketing Assistant Brand Manager Sales Manager Others

11

19

5

2 0

2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

Understand it completely Pretty familiar Only heard about it No idea about it

How familiar are you with the digital marketing concept?

How familiar are you with the digital marketing concept?

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marketing is. Overall, we can say that many of the respondents have understood digital marketing and are familiar with how it works.

Question 4: If yes, what kinds of digital marketing do you use for your business?

FIGURE 10: Different components for Digital Marketing

This question was asked about digital marketing components that startups are using for advertising and promoting their business. As seen in figure 10, social media and websites are most chosen, on the other hand ‘others’ and ‘email marketing’ are less preferred. Among 37 respondents, 30 companies are using social media, 15 companies are using websites, 11 companies are using content marketing, 3 companies are using search engine optimization, 6 companies are using PPC, and 1 company using email marketing respectively. It is clear from the above figure that social media and websites are more popular and the most preferred digital marketing tools amongst startups in Nepal. Likewise, email marketing and content marketing have less impression on the digital platform even though those are considered an effective tool for marketing strategies globally.

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

Social Media Website Email

SEO PPC Content Marketing Others

What kinds of digital marketing do you use for your business

What kinds of digital marketing do you use for your business

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Question 5: Considering the current situation of Nepal, which marketing source is more effective for a startup?

FIGURE 11: Effective source of marketing for startups

Question number five asked the respondents to self-evaluate their understanding level of effectiveness of different marketing sources in today’s Nepalese market. Statistics presented in figure 11 revealed that 73 percent of respondents consider digital media as the most preferable source of marketing, 16 percent consider print media as the most effective and 11% consider radio and television as an effective tool of marketing for startups in Nepal.

Question 6: Does the company have a defined digital marketing strategy at present?

After identifying the most effective media of marketing for startups, the respondents were asked whether or not they process a well-defined digital marketing strategy in their business at present. 57 % of the respondents stated that they do have the strategy whereas those claiming that they do have a digital marketing strategy at the moment, but probably maybe in the future, made up almost 43 % of the total selection. However, most of the participants who mentioned they don’t have any defined strategy were still using various social media channels for their business.

16%

11%

73%

Which marketing source is more effective for startup?

Print media Radio and Television Digital media Other

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FIGURE 12: Digital marketing strategy at the present

Question 7: Since how long has digital marketing been used in your business?

FIGURE 13: Duration of using digital marketing in business

Question number seven provided a general picture about the experience level of using digital media in a business context by Nepalese startups. As can be seen in Figure 13, almost half of the respondents claimed that they have been using digital media for business purposes for less than a year, whereas the

57%

47%

Does the company have a defined digital marketing strategy at the present?

Yes No

46%

54%

0% 0%

Since how long has digital marketing been used in your business?

one year 2-3 years 4-5 years more than 5 years

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majority of the respondents have been using digital marketing for 2-3 years. Zero respondents chose the option for more than three years giving the researcher an idea that businesses in Nepal are still in the process of incorporating digital media marketing.

Question 8: How often do you update your business on online platforms?

FIGURE 14: Frequency of updates in online platforms

Figure 14 shows the frequency of updates on online platforms made by startups in Nepal. The question was asked, “How often do you update your business on online platforms?” and the graph is the result obtained from the respondents. As we can see from the figure above, majority 46% of the respondents mentioned that they update once a week on online platforms whereas only 5% of the respondents update about their business daily on online platforms.

Question 9: What are the most common methods for your customers to contact you?

Figure 15 shows the common contact methods customers use to connect with the company. This question was a multiple-choice question which was asked with five best alternative options: websites, email, social media, phone, and office visit, social media, and telephone was chosen heavily and was highlighted as a most common contact method, followed by office visit, website, and email. The email

5%

16%

30%

49%

Daily Alternate Days Twice a week Once a week

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

How often do you update your business in online platforms?

Frequency of update on online platforms

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has the lowest result in the graph; thus, it means that customers rarely write an email to contact companies.

FIGURE 15: Common methods used by customers to contact the business

Question 10: In your opinion, how applicable is digital marketing in reality to reach targeted audiences?

FIGURE 16: Applicability of digital marketing to reach targeted audiences

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Social Media Email Website Office Visit Telephone

Common methods used by customers to contact business

Common methods used by customers to contact business

25%

9%

35%

16%

How applicable is digital marketing in reality to reach targeted audiences?

Very Useful Useful Satisfactory Poor

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Figure 16 illustrates the result obtained from the survey: ‘In your opinion, how applicable is digital marketing in reality to reach targeted audiences?’ The results revealed that digital marketing is useful to reach targeted audiences. As shown in the figure, 25% of the respondents answered digital marketing is

‘very useful’ to reach targeted audiences, 25% of the total respondents answered it was ‘useful’, 35% of the respondents answered ‘satisfactory’ whereas 16% of respondents answered with the option ‘poor’.

It can be concluded that digital marketing is applicable for startup businesses to reach up to their potential customer in Nepal.

Question 11: Below are common reasons for using digital marketing, please rate them in terms of importance from your point of view according to a scale of 1 (Unimportant) to 4 (Extremely important)

FIGURE 17: Reasons to use digital media for marketing

Question number 11 summarized the most common reasons for using digital media for business purposes. The results shown in figure 17 above, show that the majority of startups used social media to save cost, engage with customers, and get more business prospects. Very few respondents opted to “easy to measure ROI and collecting insights as to the reason for using digital media. We can conclude that startups in Nepal are still learning to incorporate details on ROI and customer insights as a part of their digital marketing strategies.

0 % 10 % 20 % 30 % 40 % 50 % 60 % 70 % 80 % 90 % 100 % Cost saving

International Presence Customer Engagement Easy to measure ROI Easy to collect Insights More Prospects

Reasons to use Digital Media

Unimportant Slightly important Important Extremely Important

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Question 12: Based on your experience, how effective do you consider these digital marketing activities for your business?

FIGURE 18: Effectiveness of digital marketing tools

Figure 18 illustrates the effectiveness of different digital marketing activities. The question asked was

‘based on your experience, how effective do you consider these digital marketing activities for your business?’ Popular digital marketing activities provided were SEO, email, PPC, Social Media, and Content. The respondents were asked to measure the effectiveness of each activity in four categories which are ‘extremely satisfactory’, ‘good’, ‘satisfactory’, and ‘not at all’.

As shown in the above chart, we can see that social media and content marketing activities were highlighted as the most effective marketing activities, followed by SEO, PPC, and Email. Hence, it is clear that many of the startups are making good use of social media and content marketing to promote their business. On the other hand, Email marketing seems comparatively less effective than other activities.

Question 13: What percentage of the marketing budget of your enterprise was spent only on digital marketing in 2019?

0 % 10 % 20 % 30 % 40 % 50 % 60 % 70 % 80 % 90 % 100 %

SEO Email PPC Social Media Content

Effectiveness of digital marketing tools

Not at all Satisfactory Good Extremely satisfactory

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